On today’s podcast we continue our series about Swiss machining. Our guest is John Belmonte, owner and President of Mitotec, a precision turning company in Necedah, Wisconsin.
Recently Mitotec purchased a Tornos MultiSwiss 8X26 multi-spindle screw machine. The unique design of the MultiSwiss enables such quick changeovers the machine is running many of the same jobs the company has on its single spindle Swiss machines, but in a fraction of the cycle time.
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Main Points
Central Wisconsin doesn’t get talked about much in precision machining circles, but Mitotec Precision has quietly built one of the more interesting shops in the country. John Belmonte’s grandfather started the company in 1963 in Necedah, Wisconsin, under the name Necedah Screw Machine Products. It stayed that for over fifty years. The shop didn’t rebrand until 2018, once it had grown well past cam screw machines into full CNC Swiss work, and John wanted customers, and recruits, to know what the company had actually become.
That last part matters more than it sounds. John’s cousin Mike grew up working summers in the shop, but law school was on the table before his grades pointed him home. Once he came back, he worked nearly every job in the building. He ran Brown & Sharpe screw machines on the floor, learned estimating from his grandfather, then moved into screw machine engineering.
The machines tell the same story of generational change. CNC Brown & Sharpes came first, then Miyano CNC lathes, then Tornos DECOs. Today the shop runs Tsugami Swiss machines, Miyano lathes, cam multi-spindle Tornos SAS16s, more DECOs, and as of recently, a Tornos MultiSwiss 8×26: a 26mm, 8-spindle CNC multi-spindle.
The work that comes off those machines is mostly medical, electrical, and firearms parts. One part made on the Miyanos goes into a needle-free inoculation system used in Africa. John says the shop tries to “make parts that matter,” because people build things more carefully when they understand what the part is actually for. He thinks medical work is a good place to be in manufacturing right now, and Mitotec keeps looking for ways to put its machining knowledge toward improving the parts it’s making.
The MultiSwiss decision is the most interesting part of the story. The machine runs eight spindles that move in and out like a Swiss type, but without guide bushings. Mitotec needed more capacity, and the easy move would have been buying more Swiss machines. Instead they bought a CNC multi-spindle to cut cycle times. At the time there were only around 20 of the 8×26 MultiSwiss machines in the entire U.S. Mitotec picked it over an INDEX multi-spindle because of how fast it changes over. That’s backwards from how most shops use CNC multi-spindles, which usually get bought for long runs. Mitotec wanted something that could switch jobs as fast as a regular Swiss lathe, just run a lot faster once it’s set up. It’s working. A part that takes 90 seconds on one of the Tsugamis runs in 10 to 15 seconds on the MultiSwiss, a 3 to 5x speed gain that also means fewer operators are needed to cover the same work.
The shop has grown on the management side too. Mitotec adopted the EOS system in recent years, building out 10 year, 3 year, and annual goals with a senior leadership team meeting weekly: John as integrator, plus engineering, ops, sales, and HR managers. He says the results have been excellent. The company has also gotten pickier about who it works with, willing now to drop customers who aren’t profitable or aren’t good to deal with.
Asked what happiness means to him, John says family first, then getting to do work every day that makes him want to get up in the morning. Leading well, solving hard problems, having a strong team. He says building that kind of culture starts with defining your core values. For Mitotec that’s creativity, drive, adaptability, reliability, and thoroughness.
Good machinists are hard to find, so Mitotec trains most of its own people. John credits the work ethic in central Wisconsin and says the shop goes into local middle and high schools to show kids what modern manufacturing actually looks like now. Some leave for the city. A lot of them come back, eventually, for the smaller town life and a good place to raise a family.
Last thing John shared: 2020 was strong enough that Mitotec is rolling out a real profit-sharing distribution to employees this year.
Question: What technology has made your shop more efficient?
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